Thursday, February 18, 2021

One Man's Maple Moon: Midnight Forest Tanka by Roberta Beach Jacobson

English Original

hushed
midnight forest
I wait
for the swoop
of the owl

Roberta Beach Jacobson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

安靜
的午夜森林
我等待
一隻貓頭鷹
的猛撲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

安静
的午夜森林
我等待
一只猫头鹰
的猛扑 


Bio Sketch

Roberta Beach Jacobson (twitter: @beach_haiku) makes her home in Iowa, USA. Her tanka have been published at Under the Basho.

1 comment:

  1. Roberta's middle-of-the-story tanka effectively builds, line by line, to a visually and atmospherically powerful ending: the owl appears to be ready to grab something while the speaker waits silently.

    And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my tanka below:

    alone
    with my thoughts --
    an owl
    drifts moth-like
    over the barren field

    Revision, Frameless Sky, 3, 2015

    ReplyDelete